Beautiful stuff PART IV: Dirty Honey
When I think of the fragrances that have convinced me of their complexity or depth, many of them contain a note that I probably count as one of my favourites: Honey.
I'm not even necessarily a friend of consuming honey. Although there are times when you should use honey for health reasons alone, the mass rarely ends up as a spread on bread. I really have to be in the mood for it, and that's a rarity. The smell, however, is what does it for me, and the origin doesn't necessarily matter, because I'm fascinated by the general scent, the sweetness somewhere, and that's what happens to me in fragrances too.
If you think of fragrances that contain honey, THE hyped fragrance of the last few months is one of them: "XJ 1861 Naxos | XerJoff"
But I myself don't even find Naxos to be the shining example, which is probably because I can't get too much out of the fragrance and it seemed quite boring on my skin. Tobacco and honey sounded good, though.
The first fragrance that fully intrigued me was another fragrance by Xerjoff, namely "Oud Stars - Mamluk | XerJoff" . It's not only great as a pure honey scent, it becomes really exciting when combined with the oud. Here it becomes quite animalic, as the blend imitates a little cumin. The result is a sweet scent that can seem slightly sweaty, slightly urinous, but still within a framework that is wearable and pleasant on the nose. The depth of the perfume does not suffer at all, because light smoky notes, musk and fine vanilla also play a role, so that a lot of time is needed to unravel the whole thing.
Another highlight was certainly Nefs, which enraptured me even more at the beginning than it does at the moment. The combination of fig, honey, oud and rose was very dense and hard to grasp let alone describe. Everything was really pleasantly interwoven and the softness is hard to beat. In my eyes, this is because the honey is presented in a very fruity and light way by the fig and thus does not linger too sticky in the nose. Nevertheless, the fragrance was allowed to leave my collection after a while, because too much generic rose comes through in the longer course of the fragrance, which is not so good for my nose.
A fragrance that also deserves to be called "edgy" is Boss Bastard. A loud fragrance that also has a dirty honey component and is not stingy with tobacco either. Here, however, in an arrogant and striking version due to the crackling citrus cloud in the head.
For me at least, I have found that I like honey especially when it is loosened up by a lighter note or when it is brought into unusual combinations. Just like Mamluk with oud. If the fragrance becomes too heavy and too sweet, I sometimes find honey disturbing or too much. Oajan was such an example, where the scent was too heavy to let honey really blossom.
Here is a small selection of honey fragrances worth testing:
Tobacolor - great honey with tobacco notes which seems to be a shisha tobacco in the peach variety.
"Join The Club - 40 Knots | XerJoff" - interesting combination of honey and salty notes, amber and airy at the same time.
Dates Delight - just on the border to not be too heavy, dates and honey, spicy and sweet - winter scent high 10